Web scientists from around the world will be attending the third Web Science Conference which begins on Tuesday 14 June and takes place at Koblenz, Germany.
This is the first of the Conference series to be designated an ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) Conference. It is also supported by the International Communication Association (ICA), and by the ACM Special Interest Group on Hypertext, Hypermedia and the Web (SIGWEB).
Keynote speakers are Professor Barry Wellman, Director of the NetLab at the University of Toronto, and Dr Jaime Teevan, a researcher in the Context, Learning and User Experience for Search (CLUES) Group at Microsoft Research.
The Conference has grown significantly since it first took place in Athens in 2009. This year there were almost 200 submissions from 30 countries. The programme incorporates a number of workshops and panels, covering Curriculum, Health, Location-Based Services, Governance & Trust, and Web Technologies.
Professor Dame Wendy Hall, Dean of Physical and Applied Sciences at the University of Southampton and a Founder-Director of the Web Science Trust, will be one of the opening speakers at the event on Wednesday 15 June, along with Professor David De Roure, who recently departed from ECS-Electronics and Computer Science at Southampton to take up a chair at Oxford University. Professor De Roure is General Chair of ACM WebSciâ11.
Conference sponsors are The World Wide Web Foundation, ROBUST, Microsoft Research, and NOW, along with DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) and Universitat Koblenz-Landau.
For further information contact Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453.
Researchers from the University of Southampton will next week be demonstrating the success of an industrial collaboration which is creating cutting-edge nanotechnology needed for smaller, low power devices.
âKnowledge Creation Partnership â From Funding to Resultsâ at the University of Southamptonâs Mountbatten Building on Thursday 30 June, brings together University researchers in nanotechnology with industrialists from Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology (OIPT) to describe how the two organisations have worked together to develop a suite of nanotechnology tools.
The workshop, which is open to industry and academia, will demonstrate how both groups have benefited from their two-year collaboration.
âAt the event, industry will learn about new processes and how to push the boundaries of technology and then develop it further,â? said Dr Harold Chong of the Universityâs Nano Research Group within ECS-Electronics and Computer Science. âWe have the knowledge and they have the machines.â?
The University and OIPT worked together to develop a suite of processes for the OIPT tools which will be used to make nanoscale transistors. These new plasma-based technologies provide etching and deposition functions on nanoscale materials and are being used in the Southampton Nanofabrication Centre, one of Europeâs leading multidisciplinary state-of-the-art cleanroom complexes.
The cross-fertilisation of ideas between Southampton Nanofabrication Centre and Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology has led to a unique method for fabricating polysilicon nanowires for application in nanowire biosensors. The method is suitable for mass production, and biosensor blood-testing kits are being developed for the early detection of respiratory diseases.
Knowledge Creation Partnership â From Funding to Results will take place at the Mountbatten Building, University of Southampton, on Thursday 30 June from 9.30am to 4pm. To book a place, contact Claire Kiermasz on +44 1934 837000 or email: plasma@oxinst.com.
For further information contact <"a href=mailto:jkl2@ecs.soton.ac.uk">Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453.
Revolutionary low-power logic systems that will perform instant on/off logic operations are being developed by research scientists at the University of Southampton in partnership with the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan, and Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory.
The three-year UK-Japan project, which is co-led by Professor Hiroshi Mizuta of ECS-Electronics and Computer Science at Southampton, and Dr Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Atomic Electronics Group, NIMS, aims to build the worldâs first non-volatile logic systems based on three-terminal atom transistors hybridized with nano-electro-mechanical (NEMS) switches.
The new device will initially become available as an integrated logic-memory chip so that it can be used in portable devices. As a result of this memory retention capacity, devices such as computers and mobile phones will become smaller and lighter.
According to Dr Harold Chong of Southamptonâs Nano Research Group, the new device is being developed to address the fact that modern computer chips are using an increasing amount of power. "In fact, research has shown that the power density of chips can be the same as the surface of the sun," he said.
To reduce power usage, the researchers are aiming to increase the non-volatile part of the memory which is contained on the computer chip. The logic behind this is that if the non-volatile memory is expanded, then it will not be necessary to apply large amounts of power to the chip in order for it to retain information in its memory.
âThere will be huge benefits from the cooperation between the Southampton and NIMS teams,â? said Professor Mizuta. âWe will be cooperating closely in overcoming current technological bottlenecks and accelerating the development of novel non-volatile logic devices, which have not yet been achieved with other approaches.â?
The project aims to realise the worldâs first low-power and non-volatile logic system based on three-terminal metal oxide atom transistors hybridised with nano-electro-mechanical devices. A key feature of this system will be an âon/offâ? switch operated by a suspended nanobeam which moves up and down when activated by voltage and results in an instant powering of the computer with no time lag.
âThe âinstantâ nature of this switch means that it only needs a few pico watts per transistor resulting in very low power requirements,â? said Dr Chong. âThere is potentially very low leakage in this device resulting in portable computing equipments that will be lighter and more powerful. This technology will also relieve the bottleneck in information processing, which at the moment is clogged up on its own memory.â?
The research is funded by the Engineering and Physical Research Councilâs strategic UK-Japan cooperative program with Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).
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For further information about research opportunities in the ECS Nano group, see our Postgraduate web pages.
For further information contact Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453.
ECS academics Dr Steve Beeby and Dr Seth Bullock have been awarded Personal Chairs.
Steve joined the University of Southampton Institute of Transducer Technology (USITT) in 1993 where he completed his PhD on the subject of optimising the design of micromechanical silicon resonators and stress isolating packaging. He then joined ECS as a member of the Electronic Systems and Devices Group and has been researching in the field of MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) and Microsystems (MST) devices for over 10 years.
Steve was awarded a prestigious EPSRC Leadership Fellowship last year to undertake research on generating energy through peopleâs movement, eliminating the need to change batteries on devices. His team will use rapid printing processes and active printed inks to create an energy-harvesting film in textiles. This film can also be printed on carpets, enabling individuals to generate energy as they walk around the home or office.
The research, which begins in October and runs until 2015, will provide a toolbox of materials and processes suitable for a range of different fabrics that will enable users to develop the energy harvesting fabric best suited to their requirements.
Steve commented: "I am very proud to have been awarded a personal Chair, which is a significant milestone in my career. The support of my colleagues, the excellent facilities and the dynamic work ethic within ECS have been incredibly important and I look forward to building up my research further in the future."
Seth joined the University of Southampton in 2005 as Senior Lecturer, and helped to found the Science and Engineering of Natural Systems (SENSe) research group. In 2009 he became head of the SENSe group, and also became Director of Southampton's new Institute for Complex Systems Simulation (ICSS).
"My research is very collaborative", he says, "I'm interested in developing models of complex systems and using them to engage with the questions and concerns of scientists and practitioners involved with those systems. That means that almost everything that I've done has owed a lot to the people that I've worked with, and in particular to my amazing students and post-docs.
"The wider complexity science activity at Southampton has grown enormously in size and in status since I joined the University in 2005, and now involves academics across the entire campus and many millions of pounds worth of investment in research. With the arrival of our two newest faculty appointments, James Dyke and Markus Brede, the SENSe group within ECS is certainly one of the most significant complexity science groups in the country, recognised as nationally leading by the UK's research councils, and, with the help of colleagues across the University, running an extremely ambitious doctoral training programme in complex systems simulation.
"We are currently experiencing a rapid increase in the significance of "systems" questions such as those concerning global finance, global sustainability, global climate change, global technology, global food security, global governance, and global security. Answering these questions will involve understanding complex systems made up of many parts that interact in sometimes subtle ways. The challenge for my colleagues and myself is to make sure that our complexity science research engages with these questions in ways that make a positive difference."
For further information contact Joyce Lewis; tel. +44(0)23 8059 5453.
Open Days for prospective students take place this year on Friday and Saturday, 8 & 9 July, and on Friday and Saturday 2 & 3 September.
On each of those days ECS-Electronics and Computer Science will be holding a day of tours, presentations, demonstrations and drop-in sessions, highlighting the opportunities available on our degree programmes, and emphasizing the unique character of the School. Visitors will have the chance to see all our undergraduate labs, and to meet past and current students, as well as to find out about our students' excellent career prospects.
Presentations are held in the Turner Sims Building (see map) and begin at 10 am (the Turner Sims is open for registration from 9 am with coffee available); there will then be separate tours and presentations for Computer Science & Software Engineering; Electrical & Electromechanical Engineering; Electronic Engineering; and Information Technology in Organisations. These presentations and tours are repeated at 11 am, 2 pm, and 3 pm.
Between 12 noon and 2 pm we will be holding two drop-in sessions in the Mountbatten Building (at 12 noon and 1 pm) where visitors can meet staff and students, tour the labs, watch videos of our Careers Fair and student project work, and find out more from ECS Admissions Tutors. Refreshments will be available. There will also be a presentation on 'Robotics in ECS' by Dr Klaus-Peter Zauner (12 noon in Turner Sims), and a Careers Talk by Joyce Lewis, who runs the ECS employability initiative, at 12.30 in Mountbatten Building.
The University of Southampton Open Day web site provides further information and booking.
'Visiting universities is extremely important in enabling students to find the best place for their study,' says ECS Professor Alun Vaughan. 'There are many factors which make a difference to the kind of educational experience that will suit a particular student and we urge prospective students to take advantage of these visit days to find out as much as they can about what we can offer them.'
Electronics and Electrical Engineering is ranked 1st and 3nd in the UK in recent league tables (The Guardian and The Times May/June 2010) and Computer Science and IT is ranked 5th and 8th.
Imagination Technologies, the leading multimedia and communications technologies company, has donated a set of embedded systems development kits to ECS-Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton.
The development systems, called METAmorphs, are based on a single chip SoC (system-on-chip) that incorporates both a META HTP multi-threaded processor core from Imaginationâs META family, as well as Imaginationâs ENSIGMA UCCP (Universal Communications Core Platform) radio-processing unit (RPU) to provide programmable multi-standard broadcast receiver and Wi-Fi connectivity tasks.
The META processor is ideal for both running operating systems such as Linux and Imaginationâs MeOS⢠real-time OS, as well as advanced 32-bit signal processing. This unique highly integrated SoC based development system provides a uniquely powerful research and development platform for students.
âWe very much value our relationship with Imagination Technologies, which is pioneering innovation in electronics in the UK and internationally," said Professor Neil White, Head of ECS-Electronics and Computer Science. "By supporting student projects using Imaginationâs latest technology, providing advice on industry needs, and by employing our students on placements, Imagination is helping to ensure that ECS can continue to provide the high level of graduates needed for future UK industrial success.â?
The METAmorph systems give students access to the same technologies which have been deployed in millions of shipping products across the TV, set-top-box, digital and FM radio and connected audio markets. They will be used in the third-year module 'Real-time Computing and Embedded Systems', which is taken both by Computer Science and Electronic Engineering students.
Tony King-Smith, VP marketing, Imagination commented: âMETA and ENSIGMA UCCP technologies are enabling a new wave of what we call âconnected processorsâ â embedded processors with highly integrated communications and connectivity capabilities that will form the backbone of tomorrowâs M2M âeverything connectedâ? world.
"Experience with embedded devices connected to the Cloud and the technologies needed to enable end-to-end cloud-based services to those devices are a vital area of study for students looking to be ready for the era of the connected home and machine-to-machine communication. Weâre delighted to be working with the University of Southampton to help train the next generation of connectivity-based embedded systems engineers.â?
Dr Denis Nicole, Course Leader, commented: "Third-year students at Southampton are very grateful for these cutting-edge connected processor development systems from Imagination Technologies. Providing these systems will enable students on the Real-Time Systems course to develop a broad range of multi-threaded DSP programs using Imaginationâs Codescape tools which are tightly integrated with the METAmorph platforms.
"Students are particularly encouraged to be using the same components that are found in the latest high street connected digital radios, and to be associated with one of the worldâs most successful UK-based electronics companies, where some hope to make their future careers."
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For further information about this story, contact Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453.
A University of Southampton nanoscientist is working on a new microsystem for more efficient testing of pharmaceutical drugs to treat diseases such as cystic fibrosis, MG (myasthenia gravis) and epilepsy.
Dr Maurits de Planque of the Nano Research Group at ECS-Electronics and Computer Science will develop a new method to investigate the ion channels that underlie these serious disorders and that are used to test the effectiveness of new drugs.
"At the moment, commercial testing of new drugs is carried out using ion channels in living cell membranes. This is a slow and difficult process, not least because producing too many channels actually kills the cells," said Dr de Planque.
The researchers therefore plan to produce these ion channels without using cells, which is possible with so-called cell-free expression mixtures, and to insert the channels in a very stable artificial cell membrane which should enable faster, less expensive drug testing.
"Researchers have experimented with cell-free mixtures before, but they found that this method was not economical due to the amount of expensive biochemicals required," said Dr de Planque. "Our proposal to develop a new platform, which uses a couple of microlitres instead of millilitres, will be a very cost-effective way of doing this, particularly when the produced channel is directly inserted in a membrane for drug testing."
Dr de Planque is conducting this research over a two-year period in collaboration with biological scientists at the University of Southampton. He is Principal Investigator for the project: Microsystems for Coupled Expression and Electrophysiology of Ion Channels, which has been awarded a grant of £125,000 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
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For further information about this news story contact Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453
Over 1000 prospective students and parents visited ECS-Electronics and Computer Science during the two Open Days held on 8 and 9 July.
Tour and talks took place throughout the day providing prospective students with the opportunity to visit ECS labs for Electrical and Electromechanical Engineering, Electronics, and Computer Science and IT in Organisations. The tours were led by Admissions Tutors and ECS students. Parents talks were given by Eric Cooke and included latest information on Government changes to university funding.
During lunchtime Dr Klaus-Peter Zauner gave a talk on 'Robotics in ECS', and Admissions Tutors and students welcomed visitors to drop-in sessions in the Mountbatten Building which also included a Careers Talk and tours of the labs for parents.
Two further Open Days will be in held on 2 and 3 September 2011 and ECS will again be holding a full programme of talks and tours throughout the two days. To book a place, visit the University of Southampton Open Day website.
On each of those days ECS-Electronics and Computer Science will be holding a day of tours, presentations, demonstrations and drop-in sessions, highlighting the opportunities available on our degree programmes, and emphasizing the unique character of the School. Visitors will have the chance to see all our undergraduate labs, and to meet past and current students, as well as to find out about our students' excellent career prospects.
For further information contact Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453.
Professor Harvey Rutt, Rank Professor of Infrared Science and Technology, and former Head of ECS-Electronics and Computer Science, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng).
The Academy comprises the most eminent names in the engineering profession in the UK and overseas and Professor Rutt is recognized for his contribution to electro-optical research and development in laser technology for industrial application. Professor Rutt was Head of ECS from 2007 to 2010, and played a significant role before that in planning and commissioning the new Mountbatten Building, the Universityâs £100M world-leading research facility for optoelectronics and micro- and nanotechnology.
âI am honoured by the award of this prestigious Fellowship,â? said Professor Rutt. âAn award of this kind also recognises many contributions - from colleagues, collaborators here and abroad, students and research assistants who all played a part. As an experimentalist I would highlight especially the contribution of the many laboratory technicians, workshop staff and indeed secretaries who have supported my work; without them it could not have happened.â?
Professor Rutt is a graduate of the University of Southampton, taking both his BSc and PhD degrees in Electronics. He established his first laser research group in Brazil before returning to the UK in 1973 when he joined the Atomic Energy Authority at Culham Laboratory, working on novel infrared gas lasers for the sixteen micron region. He was appointed to the newly established Rank Chair of Infrared Science and Technology at the University of Southampton in January 1992. His group has established a broad range of work in novel sources, instruments and systems in the mid and far infrared. He edits the Journal Infrared Physics and Technology.
Professor Andy Keane, Director of the Universityâs Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre for Computational Engineering, was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Professor Don Nutbeam, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton, commented: âI am delighted for Andy Keane and Harvey Rutt. Their election as Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering is well deserved recognition for long and distinguished careers in engineering. Both continue to ensure that Southampton remains a leading force for engineering research and education in the UK.â?
New technology which makes it possible to study the finer details of some of the worldâs greatest historical artefacts has been developed by computer scientists and archaeologists at the University of Southampton in conjunction with academics at the University of Oxford.
Dr Kirk Martinez of ECSâElectronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton and the team have developed two Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) systems to capture images of documentary texts and archaeological material. The systems takes 76 pictures of artefacts with the light in different positions, then creates a new type of RTI image, which enables the viewer to move the virtual light around the image to focus on the detail.
The RTI technology systems developed by the project will allow researchers to study documentary and other artefacts remotely in great detail without being restricted by fixed lighting angles. The result will be to ensure that high-quality digital versions of these materials can be consulted by scholars worldwide.
This video is also available on the ECS News Channel on YouTube.
âHewlett Packard Research Laboratories invented this technology a few years ago and it has been used sporadically around the world,â? said Dr Martinez. âWhat we have done is develop the technology so that it is fast enough to be usable every day in a museum situation where you have lots of objects that need scanning."
During the course of the project, the teams scanned 100 clay tablets, most of which were typically about 5,000 years old.
âIf you really wanted to look at a picture to investigate fine details at the moment without this technology, you would be hard pressed to see any detail on current archive photos â and may need to rephotograph,â? said Dr Martinez.
This technology is currently being used in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and it has recently been tested in the British Museum and in the National Gallery. The software developed for these systems will be available open source online this autumn together with a guide to making your own system.
The 12-month Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) System for Ancient Document Artefacts was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Councilâs Digital Equipment and Database for Impact.
The team members are: Dr Graeme Earl, Dr Kirk Martinez, Hembo Pagi, Leif Isaksen, PhD student Philip Basford, Michael Hodgson and Sascha Bischoff of the University of Southampton, and Professor Alan Bowman, Dr Charles Crowther, Dr Jacob Dahl and Dr Kathryn Piquette of the University of Oxford.
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For further information on this news story contact Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453.